Corbetts in Chipping Norton purchased by Banbury’s Buywise

Jolyon New

Published:11:53Tuesday 17 November 2015

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An electrical store in Chipping Norton is to remain open after being purchased by Buywise in Banbury.

The owner of Corbetts Electrical on Chipping Norton’s High Street, Eric Corbett, announced his retirement towards the end of last year and put out an appeal to other Euronics members for someone to take over his store.

Euronics is an international association of independent electrical retailers and has Corbetts and Buywise among its 11,000-strong membership.

Jolyon New, managing director at Buywise, on Parsons Street, answered the appeal and officially took over the store on November 1.

Speaking to the Banbury Guardian, Mr New said this would be the second store for Buywise.

He said: “It has taken about a year to sort. Corbetts is different from Buywise. It does some of the electrical stuff we don’t do here so it is a complement to the business we have here in Banbury.

“We don’t want to change the business model, the existing staff will be staying. They have the same values we have and we want to continue that. We want to give good customer service in the local area and we want that to continue.”

Corbetts will not be rebranded in the near future, but manager at Buywise, Eric Shepherd, 48, has been moved to the new store.

Mr New said: “He has been my shop manager here for eight years and he has a wealth of experience. There will be an increasing range available from Corbetts and between the two stores, we will have good buying power and will have a competitive edge.”

Four people are currently employed at Corbetts with a total of 16 people employed across the two stores.

“This is a good news story in the days when we have shops closing down,” Mr New said. “I believe in the high street and Chipping Norton has the same feel to it as Banbury town centre and the last thing I want to do is see the shops close.”